Do I excuse the term or their using it? No. But there's another interesting dynamic here: Should this soap opera really shape the message or contaminate the writing with an agenda? I would question that. Think of how people on this very message board roll their eyes when Sonny gives a sermon about homophobia that pretty much no one, in real life, would ever say to his boyfriend who already believes the same thing (obviously).

If female characters suddenly react differently from how they have in the past, and all of a sudden dissect and parse everything, it would be strange.

I think your hope that the world weren't so judgmental or sexist comes from a good place and is admirable, but doing so with movie and TV scripts presents the same disastrous effect as when schools use textbooks that eliminate history that is racist or sexist and, in effect, present a false, white picket fence or otherwise artificial reality where things are as they should be.

I snipped your post to respond to just the few things:

- "Agendas" have been part of soaps for a long time, a lot of issues like abortion and interracial marriage and whatnot made their first television appearances on soaps. A heavy handed sermon from Sonny may not go over well, but the existence of his relationship with Will, on screen, that's meant a lot to people. Clearly positive depictions of things on television can have positive effects on people.

- To me, Jennifer now calling so and such a slut and a whore IS her reacting differently from how they have in the past. In the past, she was a total bleeding heart and quite easily a feminist. It is NOW that she has been changed.

- In my opinion pop culture inevitably shapes reality, it's naive to think that reality creates pop culture and that there is no feedback loop in the other direction. And again, like I said twice before, I am not saying necessarily to get rid of women using words like "slut", I am saying either treat it seriously as the serious negative thing it is, or get rid of it and find another way to get cheap soapy goodness. I happen to think just getting rid of most of it would be easier.

ETA: It's honestly odd to me that we're defending the inclusion of sexist slurs in the name of realism on a show that not only would NOT treat racial or homophobic slurs the same way, but is so far from realistic on many other fronts. Why cherry pick in favor of slutshaming? Why don't we have more characters including major protagonists saying "That's so gay"? It's definitely realistic. Would it make Days a better show? A less disastrous show? Teenage girls have committed suicide because of slutshaming, it's not like it's not a serious issue.